Plastic Surgery-The Male Factor

Man running
Exercise is hard work

For the last eight years or so, I, as one of the foremost cosmetic injection experts in Beverly Hills, have noticed an increasing number of men seeking aesthetic improvement outside of diet and exercise. However, I see this growth as less a trend and more of a real shift in the industry.

This growth is spurred on by society’s reliance on visual rather than written communication and its unabashed obsession with youth and beauty over old-fashioned wisdom and experience. The eruption of social media, including Instagram and the like, has only heightened the problem. It has awakened our once dormant  narcissism into the self-perpetuating collective contagion that it is today. 

Consequently, there is less social stigma for men to seek out ways to better their appearance in this highly competitive world. In 2018, more aesthetic technologies are finally delivering on their promises to reduce wrinkles, firm faces, reverse atrophy and sculpt bodies without hair. The armamentarium used includes Botox, Jeuveau( or #Newtox), Juvederm, Vollure, Restylane, Radiesse,Voluma, Bellafill, IP, laser hair removal and other lasers to treat brown discoloration, and red patches. Men are not only seeking out ways to keep themselves looking young and competitive but also non-surgical ways to actually enhance their features; these include filler/liquid nosejobs (rhinoplasties), cheek and chin augmentations and jawline defining and even laser induced fat burning with SculpSure..

All done with the expert hands of a board certified plastic surgeon or his personally trained expert nurse injectors (such as Katherine Braun, R.N. helming The Haworth Institute’s own medispa, Self-Centered Aesthetics™), results which are both significant and, most importantly, natural.  This is ideal for men wanting their appearance to be on point in order to compliment their skill set at work.

No cutting, no stitches, less recovery, less expense- what’s there not to like for those men who simply want to look good with minimal expense and time? 

DailyMail – July 2018

Dr. Randal Haworth, told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday that he believes the rapper, could have made additional changes to her facial shape. Haworth, who has not treated Iggy himself, stated that the Australian musician appears to have invested in some ‘subtle‘ and ‘beautiful’ refinements. ‘Iggy is what I would describe as an excellent “canvas” on which a plastic surgeon can reveal his work,’ he says. Iggy Azalea’s striking appearance may be the result of further cosmetic procedures, according to Dr. Haworth. Iggy Azalea ‘When done right, results can be sublime and indiscernible to a layman’s eye. In the absence of rare complications, less surgical work is needed to create the beautiful, yet subtle, results as exemplified by Ms Azalea – while a less-than-average surgeon could draw unwanted attention to an anatomical “flaw” which only makes things worse.’ In addition to Iggy’s rhinoplasty, which ‘straightened and narrowed her nose’, Dr. Haworth believes she may have undergone ‘a chin augmentation as well as mandibular angle enhancement to give her a more refined, “modelesque” jawline’. Original Article

Kybella ® vs. liposuction for a double chin

While we in the cosmetic industry are getting better and better at delivering the results that patients expect, I still hold fast that 60 to 70% of modern high-tech materials and devices in plastic surgery over promise and under deliver ! Considering that the future of plastic surgery will be less about actual surgery as more more and more technological advances are made in the lab (think genetic engineering, better fillers, better lasers, etc.), this 60-70% statistic is rather disappointing. What makes this all the more egregious is the fact that doctors are forced to pay an arm and a leg for such underperforming technologies (Ulthera ® Thermage®, etc.). In light of the fact you can get a state-of-the-art Tesla  with all the bells and whistles for around $100,000, paying $150,000 or more for a machine that just delivers fuddy-duddy ultrasound technology through a wand to aid in liposuction is frankly outrageous. However, the medical tech companies can’t be solely blamed for this-they are basically governed by the FDA’s policies which, in turn, are a response to precedents extrapolated to an absurd degree by  lawyers. Unfortunately, I have seen it all too many times – a new plastic surgery technology coming out amidst a flurry of media only to fade into relatively rapid obscurity. This is similar to a Billboard chart topper only to turn out to be a one-hit wonder! In my opinion the latest overhyped snakeoil is Kybella® from the big pharma conglomerate Allergan®, proud makers of Latisse®, Botox®, Voluma®, Juvéderm®, etc. I was glad to hear from some of my esteemed colleagues at the recent American Society of Plastic Surgery meeting in Los Angeles that their thoughts on Kybella ® echoed mine.   Taking into account Kybella’s negative points, which include: 1.  relative risk of damaging important facial nerves, 2.  cost (though one treatment is less expensive than liposuction, more often than not multiple treatments are necessary and these, of course, add up), 3.  associated pain, 4.  longer recovery (which, ironically, is worse than surgical liposuction since remarkable swelling can occur after every injection session) and 5.  inferior results to those obtained  with aesthetically and skillfully performed liposuction …there is little to no advantage in utilizing Kybella® for my patients except perhaps for its superior multi-million dollar marketing campaign! Indeed, micro liposuction can provide unprecedented control in removing  fat to treat a double chin while refining the jawline and addressing the jowls as well-all with less downtime and more economically so in the end. Case in point:
Dramatic perioral rejuvenation including improvement of the jowl and chin utilizing a combination micro liposculpture and fat transfer
Dramatic perioral rejuvenation including improvement of the jowl and chin utilizing a combination micro liposculpture and fat transfer. Note the smoother jawline and submental (chin) region all performed with delicate no scar facial surgery without a face or neck lift.
Dramatic perioral rejuvenation including improvement of the jowl and chin utilizing a combination micro liposculpture and fat transfer. Note the smoother jawline and submental (chin) region all performed with delicate no scar facial surgery without a face or neck lift.
After combination micro liposculpture and fat transfer. Note the smoother jawline and submental (chin) region all performed with delicate no scar facial surgery without a face or neck lift.
After combination micro liposculpture and fat transfer. Note the smoother jawline and submental (chin) region all performed with delicate no scar facial surgery without a face or neck lift.